Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature
Full of wit, music, and a rollicking cast of characters, The Villain's Dance shows Fiston Mwanza Mujila is back with a bang.
Zaire. Late 90's. Mobutu's thirty-year reign is tottering. In Lubumbashi, the stubbornly homeless Sanza has fallen in with a trio of veteran street kids led by the devious Ngungi. A chance encounter with the mysterious Monsieur Guillaume seems to offer a way out . . . Meanwhile in Angola, Molakisi has joined thousands of fellow Zairians hoping to make their fortunes hunting diamonds, while Austrian Franz finds himself roped into writing the memoirs of the charismatic Tshiamuena, the "Madonna of the Cafunfo Mines." Things are drawing to a head, but at the Mambo de la Fête, they still dance the Villain's Dance from dusk till dawn.
Full of wit, music, and a rollicking cast of characters, The Villain's Dance shows Fiston Mwanza Mujila is back with a bang.
Zaire. Late 90's. Mobutu's thirty-year reign is tottering. In Lubumbashi, the stubbornly homeless Sanza has fallen in with a trio of veteran street kids led by the devious Ngungi. A chance encounter with the mysterious Monsieur Guillaume seems to offer a way out . . . Meanwhile in Angola, Molakisi has joined thousands of fellow Zairians hoping to make their fortunes hunting diamonds, while Austrian Franz finds himself roped into writing the memoirs of the charismatic Tshiamuena, the "Madonna of the Cafunfo Mines." Things are drawing to a head, but at the Mambo de la Fête, they still dance the Villain's Dance from dusk till dawn.
"Mujila's virtuosic narrative shifts, feverish magical realism, and dizzying chronological leaps make for an intoxicating reading experience. This complex tale bears exquisite fruit." -Publishers Weekly
Praise for The River in the Belly (translated by J. Bret Maney):
"A riotous and incandescent exploration of violent cartographies and colonial imaginaries." -Jay Gao, Poetry Foundation
Praise for Tram 83 (translated by Roland Glasser):
"The writing has the pulsing, staccato rhythms of Beat poetry." -Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"A riotous look at the underbelly of life." -The Guardian
Praise for The River in the Belly (translated by J. Bret Maney):
"A riotous and incandescent exploration of violent cartographies and colonial imaginaries." -Jay Gao, Poetry Foundation
Praise for Tram 83 (translated by Roland Glasser):
"The writing has the pulsing, staccato rhythms of Beat poetry." -Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"A riotous look at the underbelly of life." -The Guardian